Frontpage, November 10, 2019

November 10, 2019

The Beauty Retreat, Nov. 9, 2019

Pictures and text from this Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019

Videos from this Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019

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The Week Ahead…

Nov. 13- 10:00am – Ecumenical Bible Study

Nov. 13- 5:00pm – 6:30pm – Village Dinner

Nov. 14-16 – Annual Convention – Diocese of Virginia

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Nov. 17 – 10:00am – Christian Ed – Carey continues her discussion on mission

Nov. 17 – 11:00am – Pentecost 23- Holy Eucharist

Sunday, Nov. 17, Pentecost 23 Readings and Servers

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November Special Giving

1. UTO (United Thank Offering)

Betty Kunstmann will distribute the Blue Boxes on Sunday, November 3. Return the box or a check to St Peter’s with UTO in the memo line by Sunday, December 1.

Giving to the UTO increased across the nation in 2018. The UTO gave an additional $200,000 in grants this year. Four of the grants supported projects in the Anglican Communion.

At St. Peter’s, the Fall Ingathering a year ago was $563.32. (Spring ingathering was $325.36 for a total of $888.68 for the two ingatherings in 2018. The comparative total in 2017 was $757.09.)

2. ECM Thanksgiving

Collection begins Nov 3 and ends Nov. 17.

The ECM collected $287.50 last year for a Thanksgiving meal for 5 families, adding 2 families in 2018.

$237.77 was spent for Thanksgiving food for 5 families. They exceeded their scope in 2018 by adding 2 families this year.

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ECW Tea, Tues, Nov. 19, 3pm

This event will be held at the home of Cookie and Johnny Davis

Last year 18 ladies came to Cookie Davis’ home to celebrate Thanksgiving, feast and fellowship and to consider ideas for distributing ECW funds for the end of 2018. They have collected about $4,000 from the monthly Village Dinners. In addition they were looking ahead to plan for 2019.

Here is the story on last year’s event with photos.

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Giving Tuesday is coming up on Dec. 3

#GivingTuesday is a global giving movement that has been built by individuals, families, organizations, businesses and communities in all 50 states and in countries around the world

We have two days for getting deals for us– Black Friday and Cyber Monday. On #GivingTuesday, we have a day for giving back. Giving Tuesday can us share what we are doing with the larger community.

Our goal last year was Giving Tuesday $1,200 and we collected $1,267.50. Thanks to all who contributed! We would like to shoot for $1,350 this year which is doable.

We are targeting the Village Harvest again in 2019 due to costs of the ministry. We are averaging $187 (average 10 months) or over $2,250 a year. Help us recover the cost and even add to our resources to do more.

* Your $10 donation would feed 6 people. Each would get 12 pounds of food or 72 pounds in total.

* Your $20 donation would feed 12 people. Each would received 12 pounds of food of 144 pounds in total.

…Read more about the Village Harvest and Giving Tuesday…

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Online Courses for Advent and Christmas

A Christmas Carol, about the redemption of Ebeneezer Scrooge has many references to the Bible as well as Dickens’ life. We have the entire book in this course plus many ‘drop-down’ asides that cover the connections

The Messiah, A Christmas favorite, is an Oratorio. What is an Oratorio and how different is it from an opera ? The Christmas portion of the Messiah is only part 1 of the larger work. We will concentrate on its plot, it use of Bible readings as well as see and hear some great performance

Here is the link to both courses

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Lectionary, Nov. 17 2019

I.Theme –   Emphasizing the Divine over the Secular

 "Pantocrator – Christ"  -El Greco, 1600

This portrait is of Christ as the ruler, the resurrected presence, who in God form, speaks to us. The scripture reading for today from Luke is a hard one, in which Jesus warns his disciples of hard tests ahead. This painting provides a vision of a savior who will sustain, and in the end, triumph over suffering and death. 

The lectionary readings (Proper 28) are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Malachi 4:1-2a 
Psalm – Psalm 98 Page 727, 728 BCP 
Epistle –2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 
Gospel – Luke 21:5-19 

This week begins apocalyptic readings that will continue through Advent 1. The faithful are the targets, here. What to do in contemporary crises? Don’t panic, Don’t give up the work you have been doing. Praise God and relish in his power and majesty.  The tone of the readings coincide with the increasing darkness and shorter days in this season.   

The readings are to counter the problem of the delayed return of Christ. Paul expected the second coming of Jesus very soon, initially certainly in his lifetime. However as the event was delayed, some used Paul’s writing as abandononing his work.

The Old Testament reading of Malachi provides speeches in dialogue style, where the prophet scolds the priests and the congregation about various malpractices and against tired religious scepticism. This passage seems a conclusion of these speeches contrasting the fate of the evil doers with those of the obedient faithful, destruction for the first and healing for the second.  

The best is yet to come as shown in Psalm and the Gospel

A second theme is God’s power and magesty which will be the heart of next Sunday. This best seen in the Psalm This psalm is an eschatological hymn, culminating in shouts of praise at the coming of God, the ruler of the world and all creation to judge the world with justice and fairness. Only a new song can begin to describe the wonders of God’s power.

Just as 2 Thessalonians admonishes us not to grow tired in doing good, so Luke reminds us today to look at hardship and persecution as a chance to tell the gospel, the good news. Jesus tells us again: Do not be afraid! Not a single hair of our heads will be lost and standing firm will bring us through the trouble and to life.

The when and how of Christ’s second coming is not our concern. What is our concern is the faithfulness with which we pray, sing, tell and live love until he comes.   

…Read more about the lectionary…

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